How to email market like a pro – part 1

Get your email marketing started, the right way

This post is part 1 of a 2 part series designed to get you to level 8 out of 10 in your email marketing.

Sending an email newsletter and the occasional promotional email to your clients is a great way to stay top of mind and boost your sales. However you want to make sure you start out right to avoid running into issues.

What kind of issues you may wonder? Well, the kind of things you could run into are:

having your domain blacklisted by ISPs,

your bounce rate could be too high causing your email sending platform to suspend you from sending any further emailers from their platform,

you could damage your domain’s reputation – this affects mail delivery and can cause your emails to be sent to the spam folder (even your genuine day to day normal emails).

As you can see all of these can be very inconvenient, even showstoppers, if your regular emails (such as quotes and invoices) are not delivered.

Use our checklist to help you start to email market like a pro:

Send your emailers from a reputable email sending platform – this will take care of the mandatory unsubscribe link automatically. Using an email sending platform will also make it easier for you to be POPIA and GDPR compliant.

Choose an email address that you are going to use to send your emailers from. Some examples are hello@companyname.com and news@companyname.com. Don’t send marketing emails from a noreply@ email address.

Sender name and sender email address are important for open rates. They enable the recipient to identify who the email is from and by continuously using the same email address and from name will build brand familiarity and trust. You can send from the brand name or a person’s name.

Prepare your mailing list/s. Be sure the list you upload into the email sending platform contains valid email addresses. It’s not a good strategy to assume the email sending platform is going to “clean” your mailing list when you send your first emailer. If your bounce rates are too high you run the risk of your account being suspended. Email sending platforms expect you to be sending to a “clean” list. Email sending platforms do this to protect themselves and the other users on their platform from being listed as spammers. There are tools and services you can use to verify and validate the email addresses.

Have a strategy to grow your mailing list: examples include a sign up form on your website, team members tasked with adding new clients to the list, or a campaign on suitable social media or other channels.

There you have it, these are the basics to get you ready to start sending bulk emails.

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Now you're level 4 out of 10

You’ve achieved level 4 out of 10. Once you’re set up on your email sending platform, go to How to email market like a pro – part 2 to get our checklist for the next steps. Cantaloupe Digital’s services include this all important “set up”, so complete the form on this page if want some help with this. We’ll even help you choose the most suitable email sending platform.

Talk to us today for help with your email marketing:

I would definitely recommend the team at Cantaloupe Digital. Not only do they have the creative and technical design skills, but their willingness to help with urgent projects and deliver on time are key differentiators that sets them apart from other agencies.